In a typical municipality, electric power is furnished to electric power consumers via main power lines, which are the principal or major circuits of the electric power system. Such main power lines are generally routed so as to be reasonably close to the various residential and business facilities that are to be supplied with electric power. In between the main power lines and the facilities to be supplied with electric power are intermediate circuits that tap into the main power lines. (In the electrical trade, these circuits are commonly called "service drops" when run overhead, and "service laterals" when run underground.) If a main line is supported overhead by a pole, the intermediate circuit therefrom is supported at one end from either the pole or from properly secured power conductors, and supported at the other end by direct attachment to the facility being served, usually high up on a wall. If the main line is underground, the intermediate circuit is generally run to the facility either in a buried electrical conduit or as directly buried cable.
The intermediate circuit is run through a main disconnect switch, electric meter, and into an electric distribution panel that divides the intermediate circuit into a number of tertiary circuits.
A tertiary circuit is generally encased in an electrical conduit that houses the elongated electrical conductor, and each circuit for a given facility is generally encased in its own conduit. Such conduits through which wires (conductors) are installed are relatively expensive to install. Electric circuits contained in such conduits may also be difficult and expensive to repair because such conduits do not allow easy access to the conductors within, particularly when the conduit is rather long and there is no means of determining where along its length the site of the problem lies.
The present invention provides an electric power transmission and distribution device that is generally useable in place of tube or pipe conduits and wiring, and is particularly advantageous for tertiary circuits (commonly called "feeders") supplying power to multi-unit facilities, which use many such tertiary circuits. For multi-unit facilities, for instance office buildings, shopping centers, and the like, a plurality of tertiary circuits may be combined in one unit of the present invention. In such instances, a tap may be made into the present invention near a unit requiring power, rather than extending a separate tertiary circuit from the unit to an electric room, which would be considerably further than the location of the tap. The invention provides an electric power and transmission device that is considerably less expensive to install and repair than conventional circuits contained in tube or pipe conduits. The present invention provides such a device that carries a plurality of circuits. The present invention provides such a device to which one or more fused disconnect switches may be integrated at any locations desired along its length. Certain advantages of the present invention are derived regardless of whether the the device is used in substitution for a single conduit and circuit or a plurality thereof.